


Samuel's Sitcoms

by delilah24



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Background Destiel, Canon Rewrite, Destiel - Freeform, Episode: s05e08 Changing Channels, M/M, Sabriel - Freeform, Sabriel angst, Supernatural - Freeform, Supernatural Reverseverse, changing channels, reverse!verse, reverseverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-27 23:42:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16712281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delilah24/pseuds/delilah24
Summary: A Reverseverse rewrite of the classic episode "Changing Channels", Gabriel and Cas find themselves thrown back into the Trickster's shenanigans, living out various lives on TV. Unknown to Cas, the encounter makes Gabriel have to face a secret past with the Trickster, and try to figure out not only who he is, but what he should be feeling about him.





	Samuel's Sitcoms

Of all the places Gabriel thought he would end up today, he did not expect to be in the middle of a sitcom.

The day had started normal enough. Him and Cas had gotten wind of a murder, set out to solve it, and quickly deduced it had been a trickster behind the whole mess. What they hadn’t expected was that it was The Trickster. The one who they thought they had killed, then he’d come back and killed Cassie...God knows how many times. Cas was shockingly the one to figure it out, after all he knows Dr. Sexy like the back of his hand. When he pointed out a mistake, the Trickster, whatever his name was, revealed himself, with his stupidly cute hair and dazzling eyes. Gabriel couldn’t believe he hit on a trickster, a trickster, of all people when they first met at Crawford Hall. And then did...more later that night, without Cas knowing...

He would like to say he liked his sense of humor, but then he got hit in the dick with a giant metal ball, so yeah, it wasn’t really that funny. 

Dean had tried to reach them with all his angelic power shortly after that, then he just disappeared. He said they had been gone for days though...what the hell was happening?

Gabriel had just finished escorting Cas’ ...well, “escort” off the set (who he claims he didn’t actually have sex with. That disappointed Gabriel. Would his brother forever stay a virgin?). He put on his usual charming grin as the laugh track played, which where in the hell was that coming from? Where was any of this coming from?

“How long do you think we’ll have to keep doing this?” Cas asked through teeth chomped together in a forced smile.

“I don’t know...forever? Till we die?” Gabriel responded sarcastically, which earned another round of the laugh track. Dread began to fill his stomach.

Abruptly, the door burst open, and a disheveled looking Dean walked in, bruised with blood staining the AC/DC t-shirt he never changed. Cas went to run forward, mouth agape, but Dean held up a hand to stop him.

“Dean? What the hell man, where have you been?” Gabriel asked, “You just disappeared on us asshole! Can’t you zap us out of here?”

“Usually I’d tell you to shove it but I don’t have a lot of time, I don’t think,” Dean said sharply, still trying to catch his breath after whatever he just went through. “Listen, this can’t be a Trickster, not even Loki could do this. Whoever - whatever - we’re dealing with is a lot stronger than anything I can plausibly think of.”

“And what can you think of implausibly?” If something could scare an angel this bad, it couldn’t be any good.

Dean opened his mouth to respond, then shouted in pain as he was thrown against the wall. Gabriel instinctively reached for a gun that he no longer had. He clenched his jaw and looked up, freezing as he saw the Trickster. For a guy who’s supposed to be mischievous, he had a stone cold face, forehead wrinkled as he squeezed a hand, crushing Dean harder, making the angel cry out again, almost sounding like he was trying to form a name but couldn’t.

“Hey assbutt! Back off!” Cas shouted, running forward, attempting to take a swing at the Trickster, though he failed miserably. The Trickster whirled around and grabbed him by the shirt collar, managing to lift him slightly before pinning him against the wall. Dean gasped as the focus released off of him, and once again tried to choke out a name, when the sound of a snap cued the placement of duct tape on his mouth. The Trickster waved his hand and Dean disappeared.

“Cas, Gabe, good to see you two again,” The Trickster snorted sarcastically.

“Let him go!” Gabriel shouted. The Trickster turned his head, keeping a firm grip.

“Or what Gabe? You’re going to kill me?” The Trickster’s eyes shined with a sort of knowing, like he knew something about Gabriel that Gabriel didn’t even know about himself. 

Gabriel didn’t let that faze him. “We get it, alright? We played our roles in your dumb little game, very funny.”

“Oh no, you haven’t finished. Not yet. You have a role to play still.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know, Gabriel as Lucifer, and Cas as Michael. The token children of Heaven and Hell,” The Trickster rolled his eyes as he mentioned Heaven. Gabriel’s head swirled with questions.

“If we do that, that world’s going to end. No more sitcoms! You seem like sitcom guy. Come on, You don’t want Friends obliterated, do you?”

“Unless you say yes, your life will be Friends until the day you’re too shriveled to stand any longer.”

Gabriel’s face slackened. He glanced at Cas, then back at the Trickster. “We’re not saying yes.”

The Trickster smirked and stood up straight, letting go of Cas, letting him drop to the ground. “I knew you would say that.” With that, he snapped, and all of the sudden Gabriel found himself in an officer uniform. He looked at Cas, then at the crime scene swarmed with fellow officers in front of them, and finally down at the sunglasses in his hand. Again, and he had to emphasis this, he hated the Trickster...but come on, this was his dream. He grinned at Cas who rolled his eyes as Gabriel flipped the aviators opened and walked towards the crime scene. He looked down at the man, bleeding from his stomach, and slowly put his sunglasses on. “Get this guy some tums,” He imitated a raspy voice akin to Cas’. The officer across from him laughed, and Gabriel looked up with a grin, which faded when he saw what was in the officer’s hand - a lollipop. He elbowed Cas and nodded to it, then stood. Cautiously, he picked up a broken branch and poked at the bloody victim.

“So, what happened here?” Gabriel asked, making sure he got the whole point covered as he asked the officer.

“Dunno, something weird. Guy looks like he was strangled, but there’s also a bunch of quarters shoved down his -” His voice ended in a strained cry of agony as Gabriel drove the stake through his chest. He watched as the body dropped to the ground.

But nothing changed. The facade didn’t fade. 

Another laugh came from behind him. Gabriel turned, narrowing his eyes at the sudden appearance of the Trickster, a smug smirk on his face. He shrugged with his hands out to the side. “Got the wrong guy.”

In the same moment, a broken branch broke through from his back to the front of his chest, Cas standing triumphantly behind him. He screamed in pain, staying frozen for a moment before dropping dead.

 

For whatever reason, Gabriel couldn’t remember much up until now - sitting in his brother’s good ol’ white Impala. At least it felt like he was sitting in it. But when he tried to move and look around, he couldn’t. It could only be described as an out of body experience from within...something else.

“Gabe? Gabriel?” Cas’ voice came from outside of the Impala, before the door opened and he sat inside - Gabriel could feel him. Feel him sitting on him and somehow at the same time inside of him.

“Cas?” Gabriel’s voice sounded staticy as it came from the radio. He sighed. Okay, so he was the main character in a Pixar movie now. Nice. “I...don’t think the Trickster is dead.”

 

Based on Dean’s interrupted clues, Gabriel was able to figure out what the Trickster really was - well, Cas and Gabriel - Well, Cas all by himself and then he explained it kindly to Gabriel, but the point is they figured it out. Cas was the brains and bronze, Gabe was the flirty comic relief. If their life was a rom-com, that is. Which the Trickster did make it at one point. And set him up with a dude...for some reason…That he couldn’t explain to Cas yet...

Anyways, soon Gabriel was back to his good old human self, and the Trickster stood in all his broad-shouldered glory right in front of them. Cas grabbed the lighter from his jacket and threw it in front of him, lighting up a circle of holy oil entrapping the “Trickster”. He looked around, narrowing his eyes, nose wrinkling, and suddenly the facade faded, leaving them back in the warehouse where they had started. The “Trickster” looked up at Gabriel...was that betrayal in his eyes? Gabriel swallowed hard but kept steady eye contact.

“So you’re an angel,” Gabriel began, “Who the hell are you though? I mean, if Dean could do all that, I think he’d tell us.”

The “Trickster” Set his lips in a straight line, putting a hand on his hip. “Samuel. They call me Samuel.”

“So why is an archangel skipping out on Heaven?” Cas asked.

Even though Cas was the one who asked the question, Samuel continued to look at Gabriel. “Things at home got...let’s say rough. I was tired of it, of my family fighting, so I left, got a new vessel, and hid.”

Gabriel’s stomach flipped as Samuel told his story. Why did it feel so familiar to him?

“Why do you want them to kill each other if they’re your family?” Cas continued, glancing at Gabriel, wondering why Samuel was continuing to look at him. His gaze even lingered for a moment before turning to Cas.

“Because I’m so tired of all of this. I just want it to be over. So you two are going to play your roles, accept Michael and Lucifer, and get this shitshow over with!” Samuel’s eyes lit with a burning passion, the reflection of the licking flames consuming his pupils. Gabriel curled his fist, digging his nails into his palm as those flames stared back at him.

“That’s not going to happen Samuel,” Cas said defiantly, standing his ground, “It doesn’t have to be this way. We can figure out a way to stop it.”

Samuel snorted. “Oh yeah, the two idiots who started this whole thing are gonna put a stop to it without destroying the world, good luck with that,” he waved his hand dismissively, “This has been seen from the start. This is how it was always going to end. No matter what choices you make, it’s going to end with bloody corpses fertilizing a cleansed Earth.”

The words sent chills down Gabriel’s spine. There was a tense silence, the two brothers staring at the archangel, who only stared back at Gabriel.

“Bring Dean back,” Cas finally spoke. Samuel glanced at him and snapped his fingers. Dean appeared beside Cas, looking at the two brothers then at Samuel. His jaw tightened.

“Hiya Sammy,” Dean greeted sarcastically.

“It’s Samuel,” Was the archangel’s curt response.

“You okay?” Cas asked Dean. Dean just gave a nod, still watching Samuel with a look of sorrow on his face. Cas glared at Samuel and turned on his heel. “Let’s go.” Unsure of what else to do, Gabriel followed his brother and his angel as they walked towards the exit.

“So you’re just going to leave me here?!” Samuel shouted, voice echoing off the walls of the warehouse.

“Yes!” Cas snapped back, pushing the door open. But Gabriel stopped. He looked over his shoulder at Samuel, who just stood there, shoulders slouching in defeat, a pitious look on his face. God damn it, why did Gabriel always have to feel so bad? He looked at the fire alarm switch right next to the door and pulled it, the sprinklers raining down on the fire and Samuel. Samuel looked up then back down at Gabriel.

“Don’t make me regret that!” Gabriel shouted before exiting, not taking another look behind him.

 

It was the middle of the night in the motel room when a sound outside woke Gabriel up. Well, he said woke up, when really he had never been asleep in the first place. Everything that Samuel had said, even Samuel as a whole had his head swimming. He sighed and sat up, pulling on some sweatpants and a jacket before going out to investigate the noise. It sounded like a bunch of trash cans had been knocked over. Most likely just raccoons. But as a hunter, you could never be too safe.

Gabriel looked around outside, eyes scanning the relatively empty parking lot. There weren’t any trash cans that he could see from here, so he walked down the steps, thinking that the sound might have come from the ground level. As soon as he did, he could see no trash cans were out of place, and then he heard the sound of rustling bushes around the corner. Gabriel’s shoulders tensed and he drew a pocket knife, flipping it open as he crept around the corner. Shockingly, in the shadows, stood Samuel, only visible by the thin traces of moonlight.

“What are you doing here?” Gabriel didn’t loosen his grip on the knife. 

“I came to...apologize,” Samuel stepped forward, the pitch dark making it hard to read his expression. Gabriel stood his ground, allowing Samuel to grab his wrist gently. “For what happened at Mystery Spot and this whole TV show thing. I...acted out.”

Gabriel was almost impressed by the apology, until Samuel added “But I was only doing it to help you.”

Gabriel wrinkled his nose and yanked his wrist away. “To help me? How would any of that help me Samuel!?”

“Gabriel-”

“You killed Cas too many times to count, you broke me -” Gabriel’s voice trembled at the memory, “- And now this?! I mean, what the hell man!?”

“I told you my reasoning for Mystery Spot,” Samuel spoke calmly, “I wanted to prepare you for losing Cas. I know what it's like, to know you’re going to lose your brother. You tell yourself it’s all going to be fine, that you’ll be fine, but when it actually happens -” Samuel choked on his words and he had to clear his throat “- it’s never as easy as you think. When I lost Lucifer I was just like how you acted when you thought you had lost Cas. But then after I went through that, when I ran from Michael and Raphael, it was so much easier to just…let go. I thought that maybe, if I did the same with you, if you could go through...that...in a place with no consequence, then you’d feel better and be better in the long run.”

Gabriel just stood there, speechless. Was it bad he felt pity? That he wanted to comfort this bastard? Maybe he’d done a shit thing to him but...in a way, it’d be lying if he didn’t say that it...helped? Was this what it was like, to sympathise with another victim? Still, he felt horrible for wanting to tell Samuel he was sorry. For what, he didn’t know. He just was.

Before Gabriel could open his mouth, Samuel leaned in halfway, giving Gabriel the chance to decline the opportunity he was presenting. Gabriel found himself back in Crawford Hall, making good use of the scandalous professor’s office, just the way he would have wanted, with Samuel. Gently, he cupped Samuel’s face with his hands and planted a quick kiss on his lips. Immediately, regret filled his chest and he pushed Samuel away. “You should leave. Now.”

Samuel looked disheartened, but he nodded, looking at the ground. “If you ever need me -”

“I won’t.”

“- just pray.”

Gabriel didn’t even give a gesture to show that he had heard. Samuel bit his lip and vanished, leaving Gabriel standing alone in the dark for a few long moments before he turned and returned to his motel room. He wasn’t sure he forgave Samuel for anything he’d done. Good reasoning aside, he executed it like shit, and he knew he had. And he’d...owned up to it...He let out a grunt of frustration and picked at the skin on his lip, wanting to tear it off for even touching Samuel’s. 

He wouldn’t forget what Samuel had done.

But he also couldn’t forget Crawford Hall.


End file.
